Ep.308: Neil Demers, Diego Pellicer

Ep.308: Neil Demers, Diego Pellicer

Neil Demers joins us and discusses the correct pronunciation and history of Diego Pellicer a boutique cannabis dispensary brand with an interesting ownership structure. Based on his background, Neil is road mapping the entire customer journey. He’s trying to understand how the customer came to the brand, what that customer sees when they look at the edifice that houses the store, the experience checking-in, shopping with the budtender, checking out at the cashier and even enjoying the project at home. He dives in on each of those touch points to ensure he’s maximizing the customer experience at each of those touch points. He also listens to the voice of the customer to understand how he can differentiate the brand and deliver a unique experience.

Transcript:

Speaker 3: Neil Demers joins us and discusses the correct pronunciation in history of Diego pellicer boutique cannabis dispensary brand with an interesting ownership structure. Based on his background, Neil is roadmapping the entire customer journey. He's trying to understand how the customer came to the brand, what the customer sees when they look at the edifice that houses the store, the experience, checking in, shopping at the bud tender, checking out at the cashier, and even enjoying the products at home. He dives in on each of those touch points to ensure he's maximizing the customer experience at each of those touch points. He also listens to the voice of the customer to understand how we can differentiate the brand and deliver unique experience. Welcome to cannabis economy. I'm your host Seth Adler. Check us out on social dynamic can economy. That's two ends of the word economy. Neil diverse. She says for Johnson Johnson. So like door to door or

Speaker 4: no, no, no, no business business. Yeah. Wholesale, wholesale. And uh, we're not wanting a time at here. Uh, yeah. And uh, so with that though, you get the strong a type personality that goes with it. Of course. Yup. Of course. Which means what though in your, uh, in terms of your light, airy, outgoing. Yes. Good. Passionate on any thing that she does a talkative and can actually carry a conversation and can handle her own with anyone in any situation. I like all this. And the nice thing is she jokes a lot. Oh good. So she's got to send to you frank prankster. Definitely a big sense of humor. Huh? What, what are the downsides of? I'm just kidding. I'm not actually. Yeah, that's a good question. There's nothing. She's perfect. She's perfect. That's the answer. What are the downsides to you, do you think? Uh, I have downsides.

Speaker 4: Yeah, right. You Do, you know this, you're an adult person, you've been around yourself for awhile now. And not everything is perfect. Nope, not perfect. Uh, life's good though. Life's good. Diego pellicer. Diego pellicer because we're in America I guess, and Americans can't do pay US air. They can't do it. So question for you, do, are you recording now? Oh sure. Okay. So it's all going. Oh yeah. Okay. Awesome. Alright, so I asked her if anything, I'll answer it. Fair enough. Okay. Why don't we have to go. You will know about me. I'll tell you. Will find the end. It's good that we heard about kristen and we're very proud of and happy for you. But first I want to talk about Diego, then you, who are different people, which we talked about in our first conversation without these microphones. Why is it, do you think that a regular everyday average Americans can't do the pay a Sarah thing?

Speaker 4: Uh, because it's a Spanish name. It is, yeah. So, so I, I hear everything from Pella, ca people try to get it. Here's, here's what it is, is I think it's because it's a high end boutique brand. So people perceive it as a fancy brands. Should they perceive it as a fancy name? Yeah. So they try to go fancy with it. I say I understand. I mean, I didn't even try to pronounce it. I said, Diego, I got that part. Most people will call it diego, it's kind of like a little bit of a club. So especially when it used to be called Diego Pacer, just the correct pronunciation, like I was telling you, it's two l's make a white and Spanish, so, uh, but that, that is just too far above people's heads and even if I give you that description, most people still butcher it.

Speaker 4: Uh, and so we had to change it to Pelissero and that, that is the most. That was the second most common pronunciation of the name. What was acceptable per pronunciation? Oh, the first, most common was pay a say when people would get it. Right. Exactly. So then we went with the next best thing. Essentially. Who is, or who was Diego Pacer? That's a good question. Uh, so diego pellicer was one of the cofounders great grandfathers, and in the late 18 hundreds, uh, he was the governor of the island Cebu in the Philippines. And that's also when the Spanish colonized the Philippines. And he had one of the largest hemp farms in the world at the time. And it was an entrepreneur himself and we used to make a bunch of hemp products such as rope or textile and they used to make it for the Spanish Armada.

Speaker 3: Neil Deemers joins us and discusses the correct pronunciation in history of Diego pellicer boutique cannabis dispensary brand with an interesting ownership structure. Based on his background, Neil is roadmapping the entire customer journey. He's trying to understand how the customer came to the brand, what the customer sees when they look at the edifice that houses the store, the experience, checking in, shopping at the bud tender, checking out at the cashier, and even enjoying the products at home. He dives in on each of those touch points to ensure he's maximizing the customer experience at each of those touch points. He also listens to the voice of the customer to understand how we can differentiate the brand and deliver unique experience. Welcome to cannabis economy. I'm your host Seth Adler. Check us out on social dynamic can economy. That's two ends of the word economy. Neil diverse. She says for Johnson Johnson. So like door to door or

Speaker 4: no, no, no, no business business. Yeah. Wholesale, wholesale. And uh, we're not wanting a time at here. Uh, yeah. And uh, so with that though, you get the strong a type personality that goes with it. Of course. Yup. Of course. Which means what though in your, uh, in terms of your light, airy, outgoing. Yes. Good. Passionate on any thing that she does a talkative and can actually carry a conversation and can handle her own with anyone in any situation. I like all this. And the nice thing is she jokes a lot. Oh good. So she's got to send to you frank prankster. Definitely a big sense of humor. Huh? What, what are the downsides of? I'm just kidding. I'm not actually. Yeah, that's a good question. There's nothing. She's perfect. She's perfect. That's the answer. What are the downsides to you, do you think? Uh, I have downsides.

Speaker 4: Yeah, right. You Do, you know this, you're an adult person, you've been around yourself for awhile now. And not everything is perfect. Nope, not perfect. Uh, life's good though. Life's good. Diego pellicer. Diego pellicer because we're in America I guess, and Americans can't do pay US air. They can't do it. So question for you, do, are you recording now? Oh sure. Okay. So it's all going. Oh yeah. Okay. Awesome. Alright, so I asked her if anything, I'll answer it. Fair enough. Okay. Why don't we have to go. You will know about me. I'll tell you. Will find the end. It's good that we heard about kristen and we're very proud of and happy for you. But first I want to talk about Diego, then you, who are different people, which we talked about in our first conversation without these microphones. Why is it, do you think that a regular everyday average Americans can't do the pay a Sarah thing?

Speaker 4: Uh, because it's a Spanish name. It is, yeah. So, so I, I hear everything from Pella, ca people try to get it. Here's, here's what it is, is I think it's because it's a high end boutique brand. So people perceive it as a fancy brands. Should they perceive it as a fancy name? Yeah. So they try to go fancy with it. I say I understand. I mean, I didn't even try to pronounce it. I said, Diego, I got that part. Most people will call it diego, it's kind of like a little bit of a club. So especially when it used to be called Diego Pacer, just the correct pronunciation, like I was telling you, it's two l's make a white and Spanish, so, uh, but that, that is just too far above people's heads and even if I give you that description, most people still butcher it.

Speaker 4: Uh, and so we had to change it to Pelissero and that, that is the most. That was the second most common pronunciation of the name. What was acceptable per pronunciation? Oh, the first, most common was pay a say when people would get it. Right. Exactly. So then we went with the next best thing. Essentially. Who is, or who was Diego Pacer? That's a good question. Uh, so diego pellicer was one of the cofounders great grandfathers, and in the late 18 hundreds, uh, he was the governor of the island Cebu in the Philippines. And that's also when the Spanish colonized the Philippines. And he had one of the largest hemp farms in the world at the time. And it was an entrepreneur himself and we used to make a bunch of hemp products such as rope or textile and they used to make it for the Spanish Armada.

Speaker 4: Huh. So it had this kind of cool history to it. And as a result of us trying to establish a more of a high end premium experience, I wanted to have a name that kind of fit it and that name we felt was appropriate for the direction. Wanted to go with the brand. And uh, and that's what we went with. So now, now we say that our roots are back to 1982 in the Philippines from the Philippines. It was only 1982 though. The way that you were talking about. We said that's what he was the governor and had the hemp barb. But I thought he was to the Spanish Armada. No, he did. He, he sold. I was in the eighties. That was in the late 18. Hundreds. 18 90 to 1980. You transpose. No, you're right. I mean, I'm a little dyslexic too, right? Know I just got excited about the story because we talked about I'm 41, year 32, so I don't actually remember 1982.

Speaker 4: I don't remember the armada in 1980. All right. So you're like a 100 seat your hundreds of years old. Your brand, the brand is that old actually. So this is the brand. We launched it in 2012. Were so out of Seattle. Why does everybody think it's California? I don't know. You know, we don't have an operations in California, although everyone feels like we're meant to be in Los Angeles. Yeah. And not only Los Angeles. Las Vegas. Oh sure. Yeah. They want our brand into casinos in Las Vegas. Describe the store if we haven't seen the stuff, you know. So the instagram, one of my favorite places that we can go to look at images when we're supposed to be doing something else. Okay. So one of my favorite descriptions from I'm a reporter on us said that Diego Pellicer is the child of Bloomingdale's crossed with starbucks and that's a wonderful thing.

Speaker 4: Isn't that great? Yeah. Yeah. So, um, so if you walk into the store, you're going, you're going to see a really Spanish influenced, um, aesthetic to the, to the entire interior. And with that, uh, we wanted to also offer. Well let me back up for a second. Sure. Let me first tell you what Diego pellicer areas is that it is the goal of Diego's to provide the best experience to the consumer that we can. Okay. Okay. So I take a look at the consumer journey and I take a look at the roadmap that the customer will go through, whether it was seeing our building, looking at one of our advertisements going into our lobby and checking in with the receptionist to shopping with the bud tender, checking out the register or even enjoying the product at home. So every one of those touchpoints along that consumer journey, uh, we try to maximize to the consumer experience or the customer experience at every single one of those touch points.

Speaker 4: And with that in mind, uh, that, that had a major impact on shaping what the store is today. In addition to that, uh, we, we did a lot of surveying and we listened to the voice of the customer and uh, a lot of people fell and especially women is that they felt most of the existing dispensary's were either to clinical, so too much like a medical doctor office or they were too much like a head shop and they didn't like either one of those and a lot of people were looking for a more comfortable experience but not just comfortable a more familiar shopping experience and uh, that that's what a lot of women were telling us. And so that probably was the number one variable that we took out of trying to listen to our customers. And then we put that into developing the brand in the store.

Speaker 4: Why do you sound like a marketing guy? Why do you sound like a, like a Mba? So I have an MBA, masters in finance, so not marketing. Okay. And from where a University of Denver here in Denver, Colorado. Okay. And so what's up with all the marketing? So, so there's a book I read, it's called the 22 immutable laws of marketing. And it's probably 130 pages, a hundred and 50 pages. It's a very easy read, but in my opinion is one of the best marketing books I've read. And when I was an Undergrad at CSU, Colorado State University in Fort Collins, sure, uh, I studied business and it was financing a marketing as well and I felt like that book was more valuable than what I had learned when taking the classes and reading the textbooks and that's what I've used as the foundation to develop the brand and then it's kind of evolved from there.

Speaker 4: So, uh, but marketing is a big focus of ours because that's how we're going to get out there and get exposure and introduce ourselves to people and hopefully get them in the door because I think once they come in, we'll lock them in. There we go. Okay. So, and then you're telling us all about these Colorado institutions. Were you born and bred here as well? Uh, I, I would, I would like to think I was a native fun, really a transplant. So I was born in Virginia, had a military family or for my dad was in the air force. Thank for service, please. Thank you. Yeah. Uh, so we traveled around when I was younger and then probably pretty much middle school and on. I've been in Colorado. Oh no, that counts. That does count because I agree that's enough growing up here to be a part of the. I say I'm from Colorado. You are. But if anyone's asked if I'm a native to technically I'm not a native. I'm because you weren't born here because I wasn't born here. So you can't grow up to be the president of Colorado. No, I probably still could.

Speaker 4: Anybody can. No, that's not what we're talking about. You put your butts exactly right. So then why would, if this is you and your Colorado essentially, what are we talking about Washington state for? So I have a sister store in Washington. Uh, I actually don't own it. It's a. So the Diego model is what I would say is very similar to a franchise model, but it's not, it's not the same because at least in Colorado, uh, it for a long time and out of state company cannot or even investor could not participate in any of the cashflows, the revenues or profits of any dispensary or operation in Colorado. Sure. Well, as a January of this year, that did change. So how does state investors can now invest into Colorado? And we're talking of 2017 just to let folks know. Pela Sayer, Diego pellicer worldwide inc is a public company or you can look up the ticker symbols deep.

Speaker 4: Eww. It's actually a penny stock right now. So my pay is probably a good investment, but we'll see. I wonder why you think that, but you know, it's, it's a, it's a new startup and uh, and what they do is they own the rights to the, to the branding and they're also similar to a retail or real estate investment trust in that day. Go to states that have legalized marijuana and they look to a secure properties that are going to be compliant with the local rules. Why are you saying they? Because I'm different. So, um, I'm a licensee of the brand interests. Uh, I'm, I'm technically not affiliated with the public company. I'm an independent operator. Um, they can't. When I say they, I'm talking about Diego Pellicer Worldwide Inc, or we'll say DP ww. Fine. So deep eww does not have any say in how I run my operation now they can't tell me who I hire, who I work with, who I invest, invest with a, but we have a strong working relationship because it's a good brand and its brand that I'm going to help build up through, uh, operating the dispensary out here and grow in my portfolio that I can grow.

Speaker 4: Who conceived of the brand? Uh, so his name was Jamen shively. Actually just two people. Jamen shively is the, his great grandfather was diego pellicer. But in my opinion, the original creator of what Diego Pellicer is today, what his name is Doug Anderson. Uh, he was more of an investment banker and was working on a cattle deal and for Russia and that one actually never came to fruition, but through that he worked with a gentleman who's name is Raul and Throckmorton, Enron frogmore's, the CEO of the public company. And so you say that name one more time. Ron Throckmorton. Ron Throckmorton. That's one of the names. That's a great guy. I want to name my dog, Ron throgs. Actually, probably one of the best speakers that I know. He's so well spoken is so intelligent and very talented and very knowledgeable about cannabis. Okay, I got it. So he has touched her background.

Speaker 4: Mainly cattle though. Yeah, a retail background and now cannabis background. So he kinda had all these values that he brought to the table and that he eventually secured the position as the CEO of the public company. Say it again as background at Ron throggs, but as background. Yeah, just in case I, I think I talked over you. So just tell, tell me again, his background was in. Yeah. Yeah. So his, uh, Ron Ron's background is that he, uh, originally account come, came from a real estate development background and then his family also did a retail and actually his family even took a, a electronics company public in the past. No, they eventually sold out and got bought out of that what would the adult. So then he got into cattle and that's the agriculture backgrounds. And so he, he had experienced with farming and cattle and he was putting together a big cattle deal for potential investment into Russia.

Speaker 4: And at the same time he had a friend who was working in cannabis and asked for some consulting helping cannabis. So he's doing those both in parallel. Well, that's where he met Doug Anderson and Doug started to learn about cannabis and he said that, okay, well there's no one out there who's providing a high end brand or high end experience and we should, we want to go after and position ourselves to be that, that business. And so from there, Ron, Doug, and then Jayman started to build up the original concept for Diego Pellicer, which they launched in Washington. Ron needed a, a, a, a good operator, someone who can help consult them and how to kind of critique the business model so it could be compliant. And so he brought my cell phone. Okay. And uh, but wait so far, you're only a c, what did you get?

Speaker 4: A master's of Finance Minister of finance. Right back. Yeah. Like what, what, what have you done? Okay. So, uh, I was telling you, Colorado State University for Undergrad business degree and actually got a second degree in economics, a dinner. I was like, okay, well I'm going to stay focused when keep going, get school done. And I ended up getting my master's in finance at University of Denver in 2010 when I graduated. And I wanted to start a consulting company and uh, some colleagues and I got together and actually launched a company. And uh, this was when cannabis was just taking off back in 2010 in Eric holder, what we call the holder memo. He just released a memorandum saying that the federal government was going to allow the states to develop their own regulations and as long as the licensees within those states bald those laws that the federal government would be hands off, and so cannabis really started at the Cole memo.

Speaker 4: No, the holder memo, the Cole memorandum wasn't expansion under that and that's the more well known one. Sure. And that's where the memo was in 2009. Right? Well, this was this before the adult. No, no, no, no. This is 2010. Yeah. I'll have to look into our adult. No, but basically when Cole came out he said, okay, well here's eight bullet points that they've now the states have to adjust their rules to or develop the rules that are coming online to these eight bullet points in the. If they did that, then to state or the federal government level.

Speaker 1: Just a few points of clarification as this is important. February 2009, Eric holder held a press conference stating official US policy was not to re dispensary's who comply with state law. October 2009. The ogden memo clarified that position, June 2011, the first coal memo further clarified that operators in fact had to be complying with State Law August 2013, the second Cole memo, which is usually what folks are referring to if they referenced the Cole Memo, laid out the eight priority in enforcing the controlled substances act, such as preventing diversion and distribution to minors. Valentine's Day 2014 restating the eight priority areas. The third Cole memo comes out in concert with fincen guidance on how financial institutions can provide services to the cannabis economy. Please listen to episode 1:40 with Jim Cole for further detailed information. And now back to the show.

Speaker 4: So, you know, cannabis was just taken off in 2010 in Colorado, was really getting hot and I ended up buying a dispensary down in Colorado Springs. So you did. And this was when licenses were allowed to be standalone licenses, kinda similar to what the recreational market is today. Uh, but at that time a Colorado decided to pass a, well we call hb house bill 1280 slash 1284. Right? And that forced vertical integration or the industry among a lot of other rules. And so we were forced into these shotgun marriages where I had this store, but did it have a grow, did it have any knowledge of growing at the time? And I, but I did for seat. I was going to be very expensive and we couldn't find the right partner. So I ended up selling out my interest and I was like, that's too risky.

Speaker 4: Federal government's still trying to figure out their position to states developing their regulations, who knows where this can go. So I actually ended up focusing, uh, on ancillary services and I launched a company called Canada staff. It was the first of its kind, but it was a staffing company for the cannabis industry. And I was able to staff the whole value chain, whether it was grows, dispensary's edible operations, even some ancillary services. But the problem that I ran into was that it was tough to find qualified talent. This was 2010 and 11, eventually 12. I ended up just going only consulting. Right? Uh, but um, and so, you know, everyone thought that the time that you just need to smoke weed to get a job, you didn't actually have to show up and do a good job or actually have skills and knowledge and know what you're doing and perform.

Speaker 4: And so it was tough to find some strong talent back then and I even developed some training programs, had training for bud tenders are trimmers and that one was a little bit easier, but it was tougher to train a manager or a sales rep ID. Uh, and so after awhile consulting had started to take off and I decided I was going to shut the Canada staff down. Got, it's actually been a little bit of a side project of mine. Where are you familiar with monster.com? Yeah, I've heard of though. I want Qantas staff to be the monster.com of cannabis wanted it to be. No, it's still still still going to happen. So the website's all built by just, uh, I don't have anyone to run it right now. I guess you'd probably raise some money for it. Well, what about you? You're doing the diego thing because we like that.

Speaker 4: Now, are you going to have the opportunity to work outside of Colorado? How does that work with the, I guess, parent company or. Yeah, you know, the parent company is there to be a resource. Okay. And so if I choose to, I can have them help me secure a property, maybe do a tenant improvement, I can, it'll help me with merchandising and branding, but that's almost the extent that a public company can participate. Um, and it's all gonna come down to each state and their loss. Um, and so the only other, the only issue is with Diego, uh, you know, the nice thing is it creates an exit strategy for me in that in the long run, if the state ever allows it and the federal government ever allows it, uh, and they all open up the regulations and everyone could be acquired into a single public company.

Speaker 4: That would be a big opportunity for me. Um, but if that doesn't happen, that's okay. I can still expand and do my own thing. Interesting. And uh, and but with Diego, um, and as with a lot of these investors out there is you, you got to look at the cost of the financing and you've got to try and find the best deal because you're a small business. This industry takes eight months to 12 months to really get going and that's where a lot of investors have issues, is a lot of investors want to start cash flowing right away, didn't want to put their money in, when am I going to start getting a return on investment and return of equity and what's my payback period. And so with all that, cannabis is often too difficult for them to swallow because you have to go through licensing you yet to secure a property, you have to do engineering, you have to build it out, then you have to launch it.

Speaker 4: So it's a long time. It's a long time, 1280. How are you able to get any dollars back to that parent company? I wonder how, how does that model look at all? No dollars go to the parent company. Oh Wow. They only so there my landlord. So they help at least my properties or help me secure my properties because when I was launching I was a new entity and I was, I was young and just starting and the landlord weren't comfortable with me leasing the properties directly, so Diego Pellicer came in and they leased the properties and subleased it to me and so they collect the rent on the property. They get a little bit of premium though. So you know that they'll make some money off that. Right. The other way that they make money is off merchandise. So anytime that they have any diego pellicer branding product, t shirts are there, they can take knowledge.

Speaker 4: We split it. But that's what it. Yeah, you know, they'll, they'll make a little bit of money off it will make a little money, but some of the merchandising and then I'm a really basic licensing fee. So I licensed the brand. They make a small fee off that. Got It. And so that, that's how they make money today. What their hopes are is to continue to help me grow or help any other operator tennet grow whoever they can, make some cash flow off the real estate and then in any states that they can become operators and own a cannabis operation, they're going to. And they do have the longterm vision of trying to build up the brand, build up the port operators and every operator's portfolio and acquire them all under one company. One day. There you go. If that ever happens, we will see my friend.

Speaker 4: It's not going to happen tomorrow. Nope. But they're, they're a good resource, you know, very knowledgeable. Um, and they're, they're there to find strong operators who can help build the brand. So for you being a strong operator, building the brand, what are the main things that you have to do this week or this month? You know, how do you become a good operator? I guess? Uh, so on the CEO of my Colorado operation. Okay. And our operation consists of our dispensary, which is located at federal now Meta, pretty busy intersection Denver. And we also have to grows a one that's 18,000 square feet and another that's 13,000 square feet, uh, very soon we'll be at 550 flower hoods and the girls are doing awesome. I mean, we're, we just passed two pounds per light, so we'll have over 550 pounds per month that we're going to be growing, you know, even with my ideal situation of capping out the Alamita store, uh, I'm gonna need to bring on another store.

Speaker 4: We're going to expand pretty quickly. Good. Uh, in addition to that, uh, I carved out a small chunk of one of the warehouses and we're opening up an infused product operation. Okay. And, uh, and so we'll be able to do process toll processing, which is extract for different dispensary's and different grows. We'll make our own products. We're going to make concentrates vaporizers, edibles. And only that I want to, I want to help other people build up their product lines. Uh, I don't feel like there's a lot of solutions out there for, for stuff like that. Wait a second. You don't think that there's enough different types of products, you don't think there's enough product assortment out there. I think that there's a lot of entrepreneurs who need expertise in the industry and I want to be that expertise for them and you know, how to be a consultant to.

Speaker 4: Yeah, I do have a consultant. And so anyways, my day to day, uh, you know, I, I, I had to manage all facets of the business, you know, from the daily operations to make sure that our sales remain strong or on top of our marketing efforts, managing the books, managing compliance, uh, managing the staff and the HR. Um, you know, I'm, I'm very hands on, so I'm in the grow almost every day or every other day. I'm in the store every day. Uh, and pretty much how I've been able to really get to this point is one, hard work. Okay. In a lot of hours. But now that we're operational, it's the team that I've been able to build and uh, because we have such a strong team with focused strong talent that we're unable to kind of delegate these responsibilities to all the different positions and trust that these guys are going to perform.

Speaker 4: And they do a. There you go. Yeah. So that's kind of what we have going on. That's the deal. All right. I think by the way, I have figured out why you and others might think that you're a transplant and not from. Did you figure it out? Yeah. You know what? It is a, I will guess age. No, it's the accent sound like you're from Virginia, do I? Yeah, sure you do. So actually, that's kind of funny because I do get the comment, I have an accent and I don't know. It's a genuine. I think it's Colorado access. It's Baltimore. There's a thing going on. I promise you some of the words, I don't know what they are, but you're telling me what you're telling me and I'm thinking I'm feeling like crab cakes is what I'm thinking when you're talking about certain words. So you want.

Speaker 4: So Colorado, the ohs, that's the teas. A lot of people say that. He's like, no, no, no, no. The auvs those. Yeah, that's from over there. That's what it is. That's not denver. Oh, interesting. Yeah. I'll have to go check it out. Go check that out. I've got to check that out. All right. I got three final questions for you. I'll tell you what they are asking them in order. What's most surprised you in cannabis? What's my like? I tell you what they will ask you about you. I wonder, right? What's most surprised you in cannabis? What's most surprised you in life? And then on the soundtrack of your life? One track, one song that's got to be on there. First things first though, what's most surprised you in cannabis? Um, you know, the thing that surprised me is that even to today, there is a huge opportunity for strong talent in our industry and I don't feel like I don't feel like the talent that is out there and that could come to this industry has come to this industry yet.

Speaker 4: For example, the ceiling, we haven't hit the car, we haven't even come close to hitting the ceiling. So for example, I've dealt with a lot of these businesses out there and there's so many people who still don't know what they're doing. They don't know how to run a business, they don't know how to manage their operations, focus on their cash flows. A lot of times you get deals that go bad all the time and so you have these deals in place and all of a sudden things go wrong. People don't perform what I was probably what it is is this industry has a problem with a very often execution. Okay? And in my opinion, uh, especially as a small business, that is the number one variable that will make or break you is your ability to execute. Absolutely. And uh, I feel like for the longest time there's a lot of people who didn't, who didn't and still don't know, so that, that was a big surprise.

Speaker 4: Okay. Yeah. And, but that's also a dancer. And so, so that, that's what I want to know what probably is the perception of the risk and a lot of the talent that's out there that could, in a lot of people view cannabis as the, the, the green rush or the next gold rush a, but they don't want to come into it in a lot of investors as well because they still perceive there's too much risk. The majority of that's political risk at this point. I would say that there is also real risk. There's more real risk this year than there was last year. I agree with you that what has most surprised you in life? Uh, most surprised me in life. So how slow things go in life. Uh, you know, you can, you can develop the best plans and set in motion going down the path that you want to go down and the number of curve balls at you get and the number of delays you'll find or how much more work you have to put into something so much more than anything else.

Speaker 4: This life thing isn't as easy as whole life because has a lot of curve balls. Yes, it does, uh, you know, and even with the, even with my time in cannabis, it says 2010 I have, I have hit so many curve balls and so many obstacles and a lot of my clients did and uh, and that, that probably surprises me at just how inefficient life can be. But if you persevere and you stay focused, it will work out well. You said you hit the curve balls. What you meant as you've met the curve balls. Did you actually hit the curve ball? I hit the curve balls our and there you go all the time. And that's, that's what they say is, you know, when you see a major leaguer, what can he do? He can hit the curve ball. Yup, there we go. He said, did you grow up a rockies fan? Is that what? Do you remember Dante Bishop yet? Uh, no I don't. Oh my God.

Speaker 4: Oh yeah, of course. Yeah. Uh, did you just see the rockies? Uh, they last. Uh, I wasn't bringing that. I was going back to this other breaking. I know I was just talking about the game dealer and I went to the very first rocky's game at Shea Stadium in New York. Yeah. Awesome. Absolutely. Somebody wanted to buy my ticket stub and uh, do you still have it? I do still have it somewhere to. That's good memorabilia. Yeah, it's in a, it's in a drawer. I would sell it now by the way. So if there are any takers engage at Ken economy document on the soundtrack of your life. One track, one song that's got to be on there. Okay. It's a unique song list called Hustler by Joseph Silva are. So is it the hustler or hustler? Hustler. Hustler. Because a Willie Cologne also has a song called hustle. Oh yeah. Yeah. I don't know. You got to look that one up. That one's a good one. I will. You got to look that one up. Willie Cologne man. I mean if you want to know about horns and Latin music. Really? Oh yeah. So, so this one's going to be more of your, your Edm, downtempo style.

Speaker 3: Mine's more brand appropriate for your brand, but I will settle on the hustler. No matter what, keep hustling, man. It's the hustler. Keep hustling. I will keep us. And there you have neil demers, you know, mapping that customer journey. So a really talking about cannabis as though he has an mba or something like it. So very much appreciate my time with Cam. Very much appreciated my time with you. Stay tuned.

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